The present invention relates to a method for establishing vegetation and a nutrient matrix thereof. Particularly it relates to a non-plowing method for establishing artificial vegetable cover on at least partially denuded land and a nutrient matrix thereof.
According to a survey report from the State Forestry Administration of P. R. China on June 2000, total potential desertification areas hit 3.3 million km2, taking up over 27% of the country's territory area. Direct economic loss caused by desertification reaches US$6.59 billion every year. Desertification is now expanding at a speed of 3,140 km2 each year, and is still accelerating. In the past decades, the Chinese government has made great efforts in preventing and controlling desertification. Large amounts of funds were invested in planting trees or grasses and improving the ecological environment. However, the result is very unsatisfactory due to the atrocious weather of a desert and the backward methods of afforestation Millions of trees are planted every year but few remain alive.
Not only China is affected by desertification, but also many other countries and regions. To control the expansion of desertification and to improve desert or arid land as well as improving living conditions of human beings have become a common target of all human beings.
Almost all of the present methods for establishing vegetation are traditional methods, which unavoidably need digging pitches and pits, and then seedlings or seeds are planted in the pitches or pits. These methods have the following disadvantages: (1) Ditching and pitting will destroy the original surface, making the fragile sand surface even more vulnerable. Under human disturbance, those relatively immobile or semi-immobile sedimentary sands become mobile and drifting sands, therefore accelerating the speed of desertification; (2) Ditching and pitting are harmful to prevent wind, bind sand and retain water. Few seedlings planted in this way are able to survive because they are either covered by the sand or die because of drought. Such a method cannot be used to prevent sand from moving or to afforest a desert; (3) Ditching and pitting require intense labor and are low in work efficiency. With the above-mentioned methods, it is difficult to carry out sand treating and afforestation in a large scale, and the speed of afforestation may never catch up the speed of desertification.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,864 to Jay H. Lee provides a planting method and device thereof to grow plants by utilizing bags of growing medium. This method and system can promote growth of a planting element such as a seed, seedling, cutting, tuber or other planting generating material. The device used in U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,864 can promote root growth of a plant contained within the device into the topsoil contained in the bag into which the device is inserted, as well as into the soil or any other growing medium located below the bags. The disadvantage of the above method is that it needs digging the land surface to place the above device and therefore it is not suitable for establishing vegetation in a desert or arid land in a large scale for both its cost and the destruction of the original land surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,588 to Martin Ullmann provides a netting of cords which are connected to each other by knots or in any other suitable way and can carry seedlings in the form of sprouted or un sprouted seeds which are confined in and/or otherwise at least partly embedded in and/or simply adhered to the cords. The important advantages of such a netting are that it renders it possible to ensure uniform distribution of the seedlings over a selected terrain and that it shields the seedlings during the initial stages of growth subsequent to spreading out on a selected piece of land so that the seedlings are less likely to be eaten up by birds, mice and/or other animal. The disadvantage is that when such a netting is used to establish vegetation in a desert or arid land it can not contain enough water and nutrients necessary for growth of plants and can not prevent sands from moving or covering the seedlings and then can not ensure a high survival rate of plants.
Thus, a satisfactory solution to establish vegetation in a desert or arid land has not heretofore been found.